Take This Waltz

Directed by Sarah Polley

(R)

Director Sarah Polley is “a major talent,” said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. Her second film suffers “a misstep here and there” in pacing and tone, but its story about a young married woman who develops a crush on a Toronto neighbor is “chock-full of individual moments of great power and beauty.” Michelle Williams, “one of the bravest and smartest actresses working today,” makes indecision interesting as the story’s emotionally confused protagonist, said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. But no character in the film is “just one way”—not the man whom Williams’s Margot is inconveniently attracted to (Luke Kirby), not the husband she’d be cheating on (Seth Rogen), not even a troubled sister-in-law played by comedian Sarah Silverman. It’s too easy to say that Margot’s story is about acquiring wisdom, said Stephen Whitty in the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger. “It’s about the garnering of experience, which is slightly different.” Yes, Margot in the end is still a mess, “but she’s also interesting, complicated, and ready to face the consequences of her own decisions.” That’s what makes her worth watching.

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